Heat sink

ABSTRACT

A heat sink includes a heat conductive portion, a plurality of fins and at least one connecting portion. The fins and connecting portion are disposed around the heat conductive portion. The connecting portion is disposed between the fins and has a fixed part. The fixed part is disposed at one side of the connecting portion and is used for connecting with a fastener.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This Non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a)on Patent Application No(s). 096218935, filed in Taiwan, Republic ofChina on Nov. 9, 2007, the entire contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates to a heat sink that can be manufacturedwith fewer components so as to reduce the consumption of the rowmaterial, simplify the production processes, and thus decrease themanufacturing cost.

2. Related Art

Since the performance of the electronic product and the density ofelectronic components in the electronic product are increased, thegenerated heat is increased accordingly when the electronic productoperates. If the generated heat can not be dissipated properly, theperformance of the electronic product may be reduced. More seriously,the electronic product may be burned out. Therefore, the heat sink hasbecome one of the indispensable equipments in the electronic product.

Two commonly used methods for fastening a heat sink on a CPU will bedescribed herein below with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B. As shown inFIG. 1A, an X-clip 11, which is made of metal, is installed on one sideof the heat sink 10 by a thermal insertion process. Then, four push pins13 a respectively pass through; the four holes on the four arms 111 ofthe X-chip 11 so as to fix the heat sink 10 on the CPU. Alternatively,as shown in FIG. 1B, a plastic circular clipper 12 is fixed andsurrounding the heat sink 10, and four screws 13 b respectively passthrough four hollow tubes 121 connected to the plastic circular clipper12 so as to fix the heat sink 10 on the CPU. However, theabove-mentioned methods both need the additional component, such as theX-clip 11 or the plastic circular clipper 12, to fasten the heat sink 10on the CPU. Therefore, the manufacturer must spend time to install theX-clip 11 or the plastic circular clipper 12 to fasten the heat sink 10,so that the production cost is increased. This may reduce thecompetitiveness of the products. In addition, the thermal insertionprocess for installing the X-clip 11 may cause the malfunctions of theX-clip or heat sinks, thereby decreasing the reliability of theproducts.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing, the present invention is to provide a heatsink that does not need additional connecting components so that theproduction cost and assembly processes can be reduced, therebyincreasing the competitiveness of the product.

To achieve the above, the present invention discloses a heat sinkincluding a plurality of fins and at least one connecting portiondisposed between the fins. The connecting portion has a fixed partdisposed at one side of the connecting portion for connecting with afastener.

In the present invention, the heat sink further includes a heatconductive portion connected with the fins and the connecting portion.The fins and the connecting portion are disposed around the heatconductive portion. The fins can be arranged in a radiation way or anyother ways. The heat conductive portion has a hole for accommodating aheat conductive member such as a heat pipe or a solid metal bulk.Herein, the heat conductive member can be disposed in the hole by athermal insertion process.

In addition, the fastener can be a push pin or a spring screw. The fixedpart, the connecting portion and the fins are integrally formed as asingle piece. Alternatively, the connecting portion and the fixed partcan be connected by way of soldering, wedging, hooking or adhering.Moreover, at least one trench is formed between the fins. The fixed partis obtained by cutting the connecting portion to form the trench, andthe trench can be used for adjusting a height of the fastener installedon the heat sink. The heat sink can be formed by aluminum extrusion,clipping and jointing, stamping or other mechanical process. The heatsink can cooperate with a fan, and the heat sink directly contacts witha heat source, such as a central process unit (CPU), a transistor, aserver, a high-level graphic card, a hard disk drive, a power supply, atraffic control system, a multimedia electronic device, an access pointor a high-level game station.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from thedetailed description and accompanying drawings, which are given forillustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention,and wherein:

FIGS. 1A and 1B are schematic illustrations showing two clipping andjointing ways for the heat sink;

FIGS. 2A and 2B are schematic illustrations showing two heat sinksaccording to the preferred embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration showing the heat sink of FIG. 2Aincluding several fasteners.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will be apparent from the following detaileddescription, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings,wherein the same references relate to the same elements.

With reference to FIGS. 2A and 3, a heat sink 2 includes a plurality offins 201, at least one connecting portion 202 and a heat conductiveportion 25. The fins 201 and the connecting portions 202 are disposedaround the heat conductive portion 25 and are connected together. Thefins 201 can be disposed in a radiation way or any other way. In theembodiment, each fin 201 is extended outwardly from the heat conductiveportion 25, and has a bifurcated portion disposed at one end of the fin201 away from the heat conductive portion 25. In addition, the fins 201can be curved as shown in FIG. 2A, so that the total surface area of theheat sink 2 can be increased.

In addition, the heat conductive portion 25 has a hole. Therefore, aheat conductive member 25, such as a heat pipe or a solid metal bulk,can be disposed in the hole by a thermal insertion process. Then, theheat conductive member 25 directly contacts with a heat source, so thatthe heat of the heat source can be dissipated rapidly. In this case, theheat source can be, for example but not limited to, a central processunit (CPU), a transistor, a server, a high-level graphic card, a harddisk drive, a power supply, a traffic control system, a multimediaelectronic device, an access point, a high-level game station, and soon.

As mentioned above, in order to avoid using additional connecting toolssuch as the X-clip or the plastic circular clipper, the heat sink 2including the connecting portion 202 and the fins 201 is formed by wayof aluminum extrusion, clipping and jointing, stamping or othermechanical process. As shown in FIG. 3, the connecting portion 202 isdisposed between the fins 201 and has a fixed part 21 disposed at a sideof the connecting member 202. The fixed part 21 is used for combiningwith a fastener 23. To be noted, the manufacturing method the heat sink2 is not limited to the method described hereinabove. For example, thefixed part 21, the connecting portion 202 and the fins 201 areintegrally formed as a single piece. Alternatively, the connectingportion 202 and the fixed part 21 can also be connected by way ofsoldering, wedging, hooking or adhering. When the heat sink 2 isdirectly contacted with the heat source, it can be installed by simplyutilizing the fastener 23 such as a push pin or a spring screw.Therefore, the additional connecting tools used in the prior art are notneeded. Compared with the prior art, the installation procedure of theheat sink 2 of the embodiment can be simplified.

In addition, regarding to the installing force, the heat sink 2 canfurther include at least one trench 203 disposed between the fins 201 asshown in FIG. 2B. The fixed part 21 is obtained by cutting theconnecting portion 202 to form a trench 203, and the trench 203 can beused for adjusting a height of the fastener 23 installed on the heatsink 2, thereby increasing the practicability of the product.

In the heat sink 2 of the embodiment, the size of the connecting portion202 can be designed as large as that of the fins 201. Then, the fixedpart 21 can be arranged depending on the actual need. Accordingly, themanufacturing process of the heat sink 2 can be simplified and thedensity of the fins 201 can be increased, thereby enhancing the heatdissipation effect. Moreover, a fan can be installed on the heat sink 2.Thus, the fan rotates to generate airflows for further enhancing theheat dissipation effect of the heat sink 2.

In summary, the manufacturing method for the heat sink of the presentinvention is flexible. The connection mechanism of the present inventionutilizes the fixed part and the connecting portion, so that theadditional connecting tool and processes of the prior art areunnecessary. Therefore, the material cost can be reduced and thereliability of the product can be increased, thereby enhancing thecompetitiveness of the product.

Although the present invention has been described with reference tospecific embodiments, this description is not meant to be construed in alimiting sense. Various modifications of the disclosed embodiments, aswell as alternative embodiments, will be apparent to persons skilled inthe art. It is, therefore, contemplated that the appended claims willcover all modifications that fall within the true scope of the presentinvention.

1. A heat sink, comprising: a plurality of fins; and at least oneconnecting portion disposed between the fins, wherein the connectingportion has a fixed part disposed at one side of the connecting portionfor connecting with a fastener.
 2. The heat sink according to claim 1,further comprising a heat conductive portion connected with the fins andthe connecting portion.
 3. The heat sink according to claim 2, whereinthe fins and the connecting portion are disposed around the heatconductive portion.
 4. The heat sink according to claim 3, wherein thefins are arranged in a radiation way.
 5. The heat sink according toclaim 2, wherein the fins are curved.
 6. The heat sink according toclaim 2, wherein each of the fins has a bifurcated portion.
 7. The heatsink according to claim 6, wherein each of the fins is extendedoutwardly from the heat conductive portion, and the bifurcated portionis disposed at one end of the fin away from the heat conductive portion.8. The heat sink according to claim 2, wherein the heat conductiveportion has a hole for accommodating a heat conductive member.
 9. Theheat sink according to claim 8, wherein the heat conductive member is aheat pipe or a solid metal bulk.
 10. The heat sink according to claim 8,wherein the heat conductive member is disposed in the hole by a thermalinsertion process.
 11. The heat sink according to claim 1, wherein thefastener is a push pin.
 12. The heat sink according to claim 1, whereinthe fastener is a spring screw.
 13. The heat sink according to claim 1,wherein the fixed part, the connecting portion and the fins areintegrally formed as a single piece.
 14. The heat sink according toclaim 1, wherein the connecting portion and the fixed part are connectedby way of soldering, wedging, hooking or adhering.
 15. The heat sinkaccording to claim 1, wherein the fixed part is obtained by cutting theconnecting portion to form a trench.
 16. The heat sink according toclaim 15, wherein the trench is used for adjusting a height of thefastener installed on the heat sink.
 17. The heat sink according toclaim 1, wherein the heat sink is formed by aluminum extrusion, clippingand jointing, stamping or other mechanical process.
 18. The heat sinkaccording to claim 1, wherein the heat sink cooperates with a fan. 19.The heat sink according to claim 1, wherein the heat sink directlycontacts with a heat source.
 20. The heat sink according to claim 19,wherein the heat source is a central process unit (CPU), a transistor, aserver, a high-level graphic card, a hard disk drive, a power supply, atraffic control system, a multimedia electronic device, an access pointor a high-level game station.